Fraud Fraut Froth
NY Times, Sept 21, 1995. Fraud Can Flourish Without the Internet To the Editor: Your Sept. 19 front-page article on the discovery by two University of California graduate students of a flaw in Netscape, the software used for purchases over the Internet's World Wide Web, raises a number of obvious questions. First, who needs high tech to perpetrate fraud? Any unscrupulous commercial employee could use or sell your credit card number without employing technology. Every time you hand your card to a waiter in a restaurant, it disappears for several minutes. The department store clerks and gas station attendants you deal with also have access to your card number. How secure is that? Ever give your credit card number over the phone to make a purchase from a mail-order house? Or to secure a reservation at a hotel? Who's to say that the employees you're speaking with are honest? Or that your phone is not tapped? Or theirs? I shop on the Internet; I may get ripped off. What's my liability? Fifty bucks -- same as the other scenarios I've described. That's in my credit agreement with the card issuer. So why all the hoopla? Is credit card fraud significantly more prevalent on the Internet than in other modes of purchasing? Or is the banking industry whipping up hysteria among purchasers to curb fraud losses? Was the work of those graduate students funded by someone -- directly or indirectly? If so, by whom? A banking consortium? A high-tech company working on some patentable security scheme? Robert Herrig Peekskill, N.Y., Sept. 19,1995. The writer is a systems consultant.
On Thu, 21 Sep 1995 anonymous@freezone.remailer.mindport.net wrote:
NY Times, Sept 21, 1995.
Fraud Can Flourish Without the Internet
To the Editor:
Your Sept. 19 front-page article on the discovery by two University of California graduate students of a flaw in Netscape, the software used for purchases over the Internet's World Wide Web, raises a number of obvious questions.
First, who needs high tech to perpetrate fraud? Any unscrupulous commercial employee could use or sell your credit card number without employing technology.
Every time you hand your card to a waiter in a restaurant, it disappears for several minutes. The department store clerks and gas station attendants you deal with also have access to your card number. How secure is that?
[...]
Robert Herrig Peekskill, N.Y., Sept. 19,1995.
The writer is a systems consultant.
[For Netscape?] --- "In fact, had Bancroft not existed, potestas scientiae in usu est Franklin might have had to invent him." in nihilum nil posse reverti 00B9289C28DC0E55 E16D5378B81E1C96 - Finger for Current Key Information
In article <199509211130.HAA20039@light.lightlink.com>, <anonymous@freezone.remailer> wrote:
NY Times, Sept 21, 1995.
Fraud Can Flourish Without the Internet
To the Editor:
[snip]
Or is the banking industry whipping up hysteria among purchasers to curb fraud losses? Was the work of those graduate students funded by someone -- directly or indirectly? If so, by whom? A banking consortium? A high-tech company working on some patentable security scheme?
The work we did was not funded by anyone. If someone out there would care to rectify this situation, he can let us know. :-) - Ian "Grad students are not notoriously wealthy in this country, either, right?"
Or is the banking industry whipping up hysteria among purchasers to curb fraud losses? Was the work of those graduate students funded by someone -- directly or indirectly? If so, by whom? A banking consortium? A high-tech company working on some patentable security scheme?
Do free t-shirts count as funding? -- sameer Voice: 510-601-9777 Community ConneXion FAX: 510-601-9734 An Internet Privacy Provider Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest") sameer@c2.org
In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.950921075223.28417A-100000@polaris.mindport.net>, unicorn@polaris.mindport.net (Black Unicorn) writes:
On Thu, 21 Sep 1995 anonymous@freezone.remailer.mindport.net wrote:
Robert Herrig Peekskill, N.Y., Sept. 19,1995.
The writer is a systems consultant.
[For Netscape?]
No. --Jeff -- Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist Netscape Communication Corporation jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw Any opinions expressed above are mine.
participants (5)
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anonymous@freezone.remailer -
Black Unicorn -
iagoldbe@csclub.uwaterloo.ca -
jsw@neon.netscape.com -
sameer